After all this time, MA
finally announces the release of the second volume of J. S. Bach lute music
performed by Eduardo Egüez on the Baroque Lute. For those who have heard
volume one, there should be no need to convince of the magical musicality of
Snr. Egüez. It is truely our honor to be able to produce his recordings
on the MA label and have as many people as possible hear his uniquely sensitive
interpretations.

While the recording venue for this second volume was the same as the first,
the beautiful church at the Convento dell'Annunziata in Rovato, Brescia, Italia,
there is one major difference: actually improved sonics in the
recording quality. Volume 2 was recorded with MA's own custom made, line level,
18 volt DC powered microphones with Bruel and Kjær capsules (the same
capsules as found on the well known 4003 and 4006 series microphones from Denmark).
The sound is even more vivid than on volume one (recorded with
the Bruel and Kjær high voltage 4003 mics) as the amplification circuitry
for the capsules is located immediately behind them in the body of the microphone,
allowing for an incredibly fast transient response and extremely low noise.

The instrument used on volume 2 was made
by the late Robert Lundberg in 1992. The recording was archived digitially at
96 kHz and downsampled using DCS equipment from England, in conjuction with
the Cronus Rubidium Atomic Clock made by Timelord in Tokyo, Japan.

Special thanks go Junichi Yonetani, and
of course to Snr. Marco Mencoboni, keyboardist extraodinaire, of E Lucevan le
Stelle records, who participated in the project as musical director. For more
information on Marco and his own label, please visit www.elucevanlestelle.com.
There you will also find Eduardo Egüez first solo recording of Leopold
Weiss lute music. It is highly recommended as is the rest of the label, which
was initially founded by Marco to present the music of the Marches region of
Italia, the area from whence the Mencoboni family hails. One thing about the
site is that it may only be in Italian. It was the last time we checked. In
any case, the music, and sound, is first rate.......

Finally, we present here the liner notes in English from The Lute Music of J. S. Bach, Volume 2with Eduardo Egüez on the Baroque Lute:

The practice of transcription
or adaptation of the same musical piece to one or more instruments was very
frequent in J. S. Bach's times.

One typical manner of this
procedure goes back to the Renaissance when the famous chanson or madrigali
were played on any kind of instrument and in most cases ornamented by themselves.

The lute has been the main
character in this process, almost throughout its existence in Europe. Practically
all vihuela players belonging to the Spanish gold century (Narvaez, Fuenllana,
Mudarra, and so on) intabulated the "great hits" of their time (Mille
Regretz, Con que la lavaré, Gombert's Mottetti, Villancicos of Guerrero,
and so on), while in Italy the lute players (Molinaro, Terzi, Bossiniensis,
Da Milano, Spinacino, and so on) did the same with canzoni francese, frottole,
Italian madrigals and other genre (Susanne un jour, Frais & gaillard, Vestiva
i colli, Liquide Perle, Mottetti of Josquin des Prés, and so on). In
Belgium, Pierre Phalèse; in France, Albert de Rippe, Le Roy, Bésard.
This tradition was continued not only on the lute but also the guitar and theorbo
as well, with renowned composers such as Robert de Visée, Santiago de
Murcia, Johann Adolf Hasse and Joachim Bernhard Hagen, to name only a few.

This "art of intabulating",
or expressing a special musical piece with a plucked string instrument, was
put into practice in many different ways. Some, real re-creations of the original
(Cancion del Emperador, tablature for vihuela by Luys de Narvaez over Mille
Regretz by Josquin des Prés), others, more "literal" adaptations
or transcriptions that tended to "transcribe" all the notes from the
original to tablature, even when in practice, performance was nearly impossible
(for example, the intabulated masses by the vihuela players), resulting in something
more like theoretical music.

Being an heir of all this
tradition, the skilled lute player of the XVIII century knew how to "interpret"
both his music and somebody else's. He knew how to adapt another composer's
piece to his instrument, offering alternative or equivalent solutions to transcription
problems. In other words, he knew how to mediate or "negotiate" (interpret:
in latin inter-pres; pretium "price") with the art meanings of his
time and its multiple translations.

Many of J. S. Bach's pieces
were "interpreted", both by Bach himself and other musicians as well.
The small corpus commonly considered as "Bach's" repertoire for lute
is an excellent example of this practice, of a rather relative nature due to
the fact that very little information from that period has reached our hands.
According to Wolfgang Schmieder's classification for the Bach Werke Verzeichnis
(BWV), this has been catalogued with the numbers BWV 995, BWV 996, BWV 997,
BWV 998, BWV 999, BWV 1000, and BWV 1006a.

Let us see very briefly
what each one is about: BWV 995: the two sources of this piece which have been
preserved up to now are extremely important. One is an autograph of J. S. Bach's,
dedicated to a Monsieur Schouster, the other a French tablature, today commonly
attributed to the lute player Adam Falkenhagen, Bach's contemporary. The fact
that both have the g minor key in common leads us to think that the tablature
is a transcription of the autograph for lute and not the fifth suite for cello
BWV 1011, the same music, originally in D minor. The tablature does not literally
follow the original by Bach. For technical problems related to the transcription,
the author gives instrumental solutions (change of register, ornamentation and
chromatic changes) to achieve the equivalent "meaning" proposed by
the autograph. The latter, by itself, is a perfect elaboration of the previously
mentioned suite for cello in excordatura, perfectly played on a lute with the
accord nouveau (tuning in d minor, generally used by the lute players who knew
J. S. Bach) which has a low G.

BWV 996: of the three known
sources, the most important one is the handwritten copy made by Johann Gottfried
Walther. It reads: "Praeludio-con la Suite da Gio: Bast. Bach", while
another one (presumably by Johann Tobias Krebs) reads: "aufs Lautenwerck".
The Lautenwerk, a keyboard instrument of which J. S. Bach was one of the principal
mentors of its creation, had gut strings, thus likely giving origin to the name
of the instrument. The suite with the movements Prelude, Allemande, Courante,
Sarabande, Bourée and Giga, functions perfectly well on a keyboard instrument,
while on the other hand, performance on the lute is somewhat more forbidding.
The extension of register and density of counterpoint in some way exceed the
adaptation possibilities of the piece to any type of lute (at least those currently
known) leaving the "interpreter"or transcriber with a rather complex
situation, since this means re-elaborating the suite.

BWV 997: Of the score of
sources that are presently available, only one is related to the lute through
a french tablature made by Johann Christian Weyrauch. The others meant for keyboard
instruments, were copied between the XVIII and XIX century. Among them, the
most representative would probably be those made by Johann Friedrich Agricola
and Johann Philipp Kirnberger, due to their closeness to the Kantor. The tablature,
conceived for the lute with an accord nouveau tuning, preserves the d minor
key. This in itself allows the polyphony to express itself clearly and transparently,
but it obliges the transcriber to use very high instrument positions and to
alter the bass line, modifying the smoothness achieved by the original keyboard
version. Most likely, for these reasons, Weyrauch opted to transcribe only the
prelude, the sarabande and the giga excluding the chromatic fugue and the double
of the giga.

BWV 998: "Prelude
pour la Luth. ò Cembal" is the only autograph which proves the existence
of this piece. The peculiar "suite" of its movements (prelude, fugue
and allegro) support the different types of theories, among them the one of
an incomplete suite (allegro=courante). As with BWV 997, the extension of register
and the original E flat major key don't favour the use of the accord nouveau,
but unlike BWV 996, its performance may be fluid enough in another key or with
a transposing instrument.

BWV 999: There is also
one source for this small prelude, copied by Johann Peter Kellner, originally
in d minor. Its title "Praelude in C mol. Pour La Lute" relates this
piece to the lute without making reference to any other instrument. Nevertheless,
this fact is not enough to suppose that this piece was conceived exclusively
for the lute, considering the great amount of originals scores that got lost
or burnt in the fire at the Weimar library. A hundred years later, for example,
Friederich Conrad Griepenkerl includes it in his edition of pieces for klavier
by J. S. Bach as the third prelude of the "12 small preludes for learners".
The piece is perfectly compatible with the accord nouveau.

BWV 1000: Refers to the
fugue which belongs to the sonata for solo violin BWV 1001, adapted by Johann
Sebastian Bach for organ as well (BWV 539). The main source, "Fuga del
Signore Bach", is a french tablature attributed to Johann Christinan Weyrauch
together with a two stave transcription made by Karl Ferdinand Becker. Another
secondary source is a copy of the transcription. The tablature version differs
significantly from the original for violin especially at the beginning of the
fugue, in the way in which it presents the entries of the piece.

BWV 1006a: Three sources
of this piece are known, the most important being an autograph. It refers to
a parallel of the Partita BWV 1006 original for solo violin and the fact that
the manuscript is not dedicated to any instrument in particular leads to various
speculations, among them that it had been conceived for the lute, harp or keyboard
(the original itself has the title added in the XIX century: "Suite pour
le clavecin composé par Jean Sebast. Bach. Original"). The prelude,
in turn, was used by Bach in an orchestral version as a symphony in the cantatas
BWV 29 and BWV 120th. The key of the autograph, E major, does not appear to
be meant for the accord nouveau due to the complexity that accord nouveau tuning
would imply to the adaptation of the complete piece. Possible solutions might
instead be found from transpositions or transposing instruments.

From the list here described
the following can be summed up:

-BWV 995, BWV 998 & BWV
1006a are autographs by J. S. Bach, of which 995 and 1006a have correspective
versions for solo cello and solo violin, while #998 is also playable on the
harpsichord.

-BWV 999 is not an autograph,
the copy is destined to the lute and perfectly compatible with a lute tuned
with the accord nouveau.

-BWV 997 and BWV 1000
are only related to the lute through the tablatures of the time.

-BWV 996 only has the root
of the word "Lautenwerk" in common with the lute.

These deductions make us
think of a virtual character repertoire in constant evolution, rather than that
in a Bach- like lute corps. This repertoire constituted any piece that could
be "interpreted" by the lutenist, achieving a similar or equivalent
musicaly meaning. A meaning in close tune with the rhetoric of the piece and
its polyphonic complexity, with its register, its key and with the thorough-bass
or "Regole di Contrappunto" (as called in Italy). With the Stile Antico,
if we refer to Bach. A task which is not immediate but possible.

Interpreting, transcribing,
adapting, translating. For the XVIII Century lute player, a routine. For the
lute player of today, a challenge.

- Eduardo
Egüez, December 2001

Eduardo Egüez Biography

Birth:

1959, Buenos Aires.

Studies:

-Miguel Angel Girollet (guitar).

-Eduardo Fernandez (guitar).

-School of Arts and musical Sciences
of the Catholic University of Argentina (composition).

-Hopkinson Smith, Schola Cantorum
Basiliensis (lute diploma,1995).

Currently one of the principal representatives of the new generation of lute
players.

Has given numerous concerts as a soloist
in Austria, Argentina, Chile, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Uruguay, etc with excellent reviews from knowledgable critics and a warm reception by the
public.

After graduating in Switzerland he
moved to Italy, expanding his expertise into the field of early music. Congruently,
his current performances are oriented towards characteristic repertoires of
major instruments such as the baroque lute, the theorbo, the vihuela and the
baroque guitar.

In our efforts to make for a more colorful sonic and musical experience, MA Recordings introduces the"Emerald Audiophile Series". It is well known among concerned audiophiles that light refractions of the optical laser thru the polycarbonate universally used in compact discs can make for a less than accurate reading of the digital musical content.

MA's "Emerald Audiophile Series" discs are actually made with a dark green polycarbonate, to help alleviate the potential problems associated with internal light refraction and enable a more accurate reading of the digital data from the optical disc, delivering the music with more finesse, and ultimately the original intention of the performer(s) and producer.

*Until further notice, as we gradually switch to this new color format, titles available in our "Emerald Audiophile Series"will no longer be available in clear polycarbonate. To reflect additional costs in producing these discs, an increase of $1.00 per disc on the MA site goes into effect immediately.